A COTS-Based Microwave Imaging System for Breast-Cancer Detection.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Imaging
• Microwave Technology

Background:

• Microwave imaging is an emerging, risk-free, and potentially low-cost breast cancer diagnostic technique.
• Current prototypes rely on expensive equipment like vector network analyzers (VNAs) and slow image reconstruction algorithms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a low-cost microwave imaging system for breast cancer diagnosis.
• To address the limitations of high cost and long processing times in existing systems.

Main Methods:

• Developed a prototype system using affordable, off-the-shelf microwave components and custom antennas.
• Integrated a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) for accelerated image reconstruction.
• Compared the system's accuracy and speed against a VNA and a high-performance server.

Main Results:

• The low-cost system demonstrated accuracy comparable to expensive VNAs.
• Achieved image reconstruction speeds over 20 times faster than a high-performance server.
• The system utilizes a small form-factor processing unit for efficient operation.

Conclusions:

• The developed low-cost microwave imaging system is a viable and efficient alternative for breast cancer diagnostics.
• This technology has the potential to reduce healthcare costs and improve diagnostic accessibility.
• The system overcomes previous limitations in cost and speed for microwave breast imaging.